NEW YORK TIMES
Saturday
• The world has entered a “new and dangerous phase” of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the World Health Organization, as cases in the US cases spike sharply across the American South and West, particularly in states that loosened restrictions on businesses several weeks ago.
• The Department of Homeland Security deployed helicopters, airplanes, and drones over 15 cities where demonstrators gathered to protest the death of George Floyd, logging at least 270 hours of surveillance, far more than previously revealed.
• Geoffrey Berman, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, whose office has been at the forefront of corruption inquiries into Trump’s inner circle, refused to resign after attorney general William Barr tried to fire him, setting up a standoff over the independence of law enforcement and Trump’s purge of officials.
• Trump is expected to issue an executive order within days to temporarily suspend various work visas that businesses rely on to hire foreigners, sparking concern among universities and sectors spanning manufacturing, technology, and consulting about the potential fallout.
• In their effort to stamp out the latest coronavirus outbreak, leaders in Beijing are avoiding the heavy-handed restrictions they deployed in other regions earlier during the pandemic, opting instead for a more targeted approach to avoid taking the economy.
• International nuclear inspectors and the US accused Iran of hiding suspected nuclear activity, the first time in more than eight years that Tehran has been accused of obstructing inspections, paving the way for a new confrontation with Western powers.
• Trump said he will again attempt to end a program designed to protect young immigrants from deportation, one day after the Supreme Court ruled that his earlier efforts to do so were arbitrary and improper.
• Rising seas and climate change are transforming the classic 30-year mortgage—home buyers are increasingly using mortgages that allow them to stop making monthly payments and walk away from the loan if the home floods or becomes unsellable or unlivable.
• The Trump administration finalized a decision to not have the EPA impose any limits on perchlorate, a toxic chemical compound found in rocket fuel that contaminates water and has been linked to fetal and infant brain damage.
• Economists at research group Opportunity Insights estimate that the highest-earning quarter of Americans has been responsible for about half of the decline in consumption during this recession, affecting many lower-wage service workers on the other end of many of their transactions.
• Litigation finance, an esoteric, high-risk investment strategy, is attracting wealthy investors looking for outsize returns from coronavirus-related suits, like business interruption claims and lawsuits against landlords who do not fulfill their obligations to safeguard their buildings.
Sunday
• Trump on Saturday fired Geoffrey Berman, the federal prosecutor whose office put his former personal lawyer in prison and is investigating his current one, heightening criticism Trump is purging officials whose independence could be a threat to his re-election campaign.
• Trump’s attempt to revive his re-election campaign at a rally in Tulsa Saturday faltered—he found a far smaller crowd than his aides had promised and delivered a disjointed speech that didn’t address the multiple crises facing the nation or scandals battering him in Washington.
• Even as coronavirus deaths and infections soar in Latin America, efforts there to contain the crisis have been undermined by a litany of corruption scandals, including criminals selling flawed or useless masks, sanitizer, and ventilators and a collapsing hospital system.
• Nursing homes nationwide are kicking out old and disabled residents—among the people most susceptible to the coronavirus—and leaving them at homeless shelters, rundown motels, and other unsafe facilities to make room for more-profitable patients.
• In stark contrast to the US, a mix of social, demographic and epidemiological factors has kept unemployment down in Japan even as the coronavirus has damaged the country’s already weakened economy.
• A group of leading scientists is calling on a journal—Proceedings of the National Academy of Scientists—to retract a paper on the effectiveness of masks, saying the study has “egregious errors” and contains numerous “verifiably false” statements.
• China released a sweeping blueprint on Saturday to tighten its control over Hong Kong, revealing plans to establish a security agency in the territory to help Beijing extinguish challenges to its power after months of unrest.
• Joe Biden, whose campaign has long struggled to raise money, bypassed Trump in May for the first time, raising $80.8M together with the Democratic National Committee, about 10 percent more than the $74M Trump raised with the Republican Party.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Weekend
• Front page story reports “US companies brought home $124B in foreign profits in the first quarter of 2020, the highest level since an immediate rush after the 2017 tax law, according to data released by the Commerce Department.”
• In the post-pandemic world, “more economic activity will be designated vital to national security, accelerating pressures on globalization that existed before Covid-19 arrived”—and governments that wall off segments of their economies could see higher costs and lower growth.
• Story reports on the events that led to the resignation of Markus Braun, the “self-styled visionary” behind Germany’s Wirecard—one of Europe’s highest-profile fintechs—who stepped down after auditors couldn’t locate €1.9B, raising serious questions about his legacy.
• The Internal Revenue Service has attempted to identify and track potential criminal suspects by purchasing access to a commercial database that records the locations of millions of American cellphones.
• Bowing to bipartisan pressure in Congress, the Trump administration said it would release the names of borrowers who received Paycheck Protection Program loans of $150,000 or more.
• As the coronavirus pandemic spreads from Europe and the US to the developing world, the age profile of its victims has changed—instead of the majority of casualties being older people, middle-aged people are increasingly dying in poorer countries.
• A deadly border skirmish between China and India this week illustrates how the increasingly forceful approach Chinese leader Xi Jinping has adopted in asserting territorial claims along its periphery can threaten the region’s stability.
• Airlines and airports that are getting ready for an increase in travel as lockdowns ease are partly blaming a standstill in international travel on governments for not lifting travel bans, quarantines, and other restrictions more quickly.
• +/- AAPL: With the number of people buying their first iPhone declining, the tech giant’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, to be held remotely this week, will showcase how the company is diversifying so that it no longer has to rely so heavily on its signature product.
• + Samsung: The world’s largest smartphone maker is trying to jump-start lackluster sales of 5G handsets in the US, addressing the sticker shock that might have kept customers at bay by offering cheaper models that still have many in-demand features.
• A key Chinese index, the CSI 300, turned positive for the year according to FactSet, making it one of the few international stock benchmarks to show a gain for 2020, underlining the relative resilience of mainland shares.’
• H.O.T.S.: For some knowledge workers fleeing the big city amid the pandemic, the perks of relocating to distant cities offering cheaper housing and lower taxes will soon grow stale; KMX, which just had its worst quarter, faces a growing number of e-commerce upstarts seeking to take market share; So-called technical analysis, which seeks to predict the direction of stock prices based on charts, may be closer to the market than many people think.
FINANCIAL TIMES
• Officials in Australia say China is behind a sophisticated, state-sponsored cyber attack, launched over the course of many months and targeting government, business, education, and political organizations.
• The International Atomic Energy Agency has called on Iran to open two of its former nuclear sites to inspectors, a vote supported by France, Germany, and the UK but which Russian and China opposed.
• European Commission president Ursula van der Leyen faces pressure to overhaul the way Brussels wants to divide up the proceeds of the bloc’s multibillion-euro recovery fund after several countries’ leaders voiced complaints during a video summit.
• President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya said his country and others in Africa are in danger of being caught in the crossfire of the US-China rivalry, and called for international cooperation in the face of the coronavirus crisis.
• Big Read piece on retail says “The long queues at reopened shops suggest pent-up demand, but the impact of Covid-19 has been severe on an industry dependent on global supply chains, high levels of discretionary spending, and tourism.”
• Lex Column: Even before the pandemic, life expectancy had stalled in many rich countries, but some experts think longevity is now set to rise; Reputational and financial hits from scandals and profit warnings leave European asset manager GAM with an uphill struggle; ULTA is better equipped than many of its peers in the beauty sector to deal with the coming challenges.
• Comment: China’s recent border clash with India should be seen as a clarion call, says Michele Flournoy—“This is a moment that demands US leadership to convene and mobilize the region’s democracies.”
NEW YORK POST
Saturday
• After months of debate over costs, more than 130 New York City hotels have struck a deal with unions to impose strict sanitary standards to keep workers and guests safe from the coronavirus.
• - FB: Athletic clothing brand North Face became the first high-profile advertiser to announce a boycott of Facebook’s ad platform because of the site’s refusal to not flag Trump’s recent posts about the George Floyd protests.
Sunday
• New York state’s coronavirus metrics are “on the right path” as it prepares to reopen more businesses Monday— fewer than one percent of the tests administered came back positive for Covid-19 Saturday, part of a trend showing infection numbers shrinking over the past several days.
• Dr. Matteo Bassetti, head of the infectious diseases clinic at the San Martino hospital in Italy, believes the coronavirus has become less dangerous and could disappear on its own without a vaccine.